GROSSULARIACEAE 191 



Ribes Cynosbati, L. 



Much like the i)receding in properties and hal)itat. 



Known only from the plateau region ('iA), where Mr. Har- 

 bison found a few specimens in Marshall County, and more near 

 Bryant's, Jackson County.* 



HAMAMELIDACEAE. Witch-hazel Family. 



Al)out 20 genera and 50 species, trees and shrubs, mostly in 

 North America, Asia and Africa. A few are ornamental or 

 medicinal, and one is a timber tree. 



HAMAMELIS. Linnaeus. 

 Hamamelis Virginiana, L. Witch-hazel. 



A large shrub, with pale yellowish faintly scented flowers ap- 

 pearing mostly after the leaves fall, from October to January. In 

 mild winters some of them last until the alder (our earliest- 

 flowering native woody plant ) blooms in spring. 



Occasionally cultivated for ornament. The leaves, bark and 

 twigs are officinal, and enter into the well-known witch-hazel ex- 

 tract, and other linim.ents and salves. The branches are said to 

 have been formerly used for "divining rods", to locate water. 



Prof. Sargent a few years agof asserted that the witch-hazel 

 of the coastal plain should be referred to H. niacrophylla Pursh, 

 restricting the typical H. Jlrgiiiiaiia to a more northerly range. But 

 the differences must be small, or more people would have noticed 

 them ; and as most of my field work was done before this distinc- 

 tion was suggested, I cannot separate the two forms in my notes. 

 Even if the extremes are different enough, they must intergrade 

 or overlap geographically, for there is no noticeable gap between 

 them in Alabama. 



The witch-hazel grows in dry woods and hammocks, reason- 

 ably exempt from fire, in nearly all parts of the state. It is com- 

 mon in regions 2A and 5, and rare or unknown in lA, 9 and 1-4. 



*See pages 153 and 156 of his paper cited in the bibliographv. 

 tJour. Arnold Arboretum 1 :246, "April" [May] 1920. 



